Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 April 1943 — Page 14

" RALPH BURKHOLDER

ity In 2 By Peter Edson

"Editor Tada

WALTER LECKRONE

“ SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSFAYER)

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Mather of United press Scripps - Howard News. : paper Alliance, NEA , and Audit' BuTesu of ‘Circulation.

Give “Light and the People. wil Find Their Own Way :

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 1943

A ——

LAST STAND IN AFRICA IME is still the test in Tunisia. The recent allied victories there had been expected by both sides, but their rapidity was not expected by the enemy. Since Rommel’s mistake of trying to stand at Wadi El ‘Akarit, ‘Montgomery has maintained an average advance of 20 miles daily for a week. Thus, the Afrika Korps remnant has been chased tp the Tunisian tip, as the combined British, French and American forces converge on Enfidaville, southern anchor of Rommel’s last stand line in Africa. 4 Allied speed in the last week has made up the time lost in February, when the enemy broke through American defenses on the central front. The decisive battle for the Tunisian tip begins in mid-April as planned. » » » » » » HE issue remains the same—whether the African campaign can be completed in time for effective allied invasions of the European continent this season. If Rommel can delay the allies in Afriea until June, it is generally ‘believed that Hitler will have completed fortification of his south wall. : Hence, the importance of Eisenhower’s timetable. Every week, every day counts now. Just as initial allied failure to take Bizerte and Tunis last November-—through bad . breaks rather than bad planning—prolonged the campaign many months and multiplied the cost, so delay there now could postpone the European campaigns disastrously. The result does not depend altogether on Eisenhower and his forces, whose recent teamwork on the ground, in the air and at sea has been so remarkable. If Hitler elects to sacrifice virtually his entire force, as he did before Stalingrad, his suicide army may be able to hold off the allies for extra weeks. Unless, that is, the German as well as the Italian morale cracks. Either way, the next month around the ruins of ancient Carthage will tell a lot about the future of this war.

PARALLEL EVELOPMENT in the case of the fake-tested steel plates inspire hope that businessmen are more willing . than they used to be to learn wholesome lessons. Washington dispatches say that leaders of the steel industry . realize that the scandal has dealt a black eye to their whole _ industry, and are working to set up a standard, foolproof, industry-wide inspection system designed to prevent more such scandals. Back in the days of the big utility and stock-rigging scandals, the tendency among businessmen was fo resent _ publicity for these business abuses rather than to resent the abuses and seek to correct them. One result was restrictive legislation that in many cases went too far. The honest majority in business suffered for the crimes of the dishonest minority, and is still puffering, along with the rest of the country.

x = = : 2 = = HERE is a deadly parallel between the attitude of : businessmen a decade ago and the attitude of many leaders of organized labor today. There are crooks in the ~ Jabor movement, as in all other walks of life. In the labor movement, as in business, the crooks are a small minority, but they do harm out of all proportion to their numbers. ; Those who expose crooks. in unionism are no more enemies of labor than those who exposed the financial scan- * dals were enemies of business, or than those who exposed the steel-plate fakery are enemies of - the steel industry. ¢ If the steel industry moves vigorously to clean house and help the government punish the guilty, it will gain in|

. public respect and confidence. The same is true of the labor |’

movement. If its leaders, instead of denouncing those who expose unionism’s crooks, would move vigorously to drive out the crooks, they and their movement would gain in i public estimation. And they would greatly decrease the danger of restrictive legislation going too far.

5

BREAK THE LOG JAM

IF a majority of the house of representatives is now ready to vote for the Rum}-Carlson pay-as-you-go income tax _ plan—which we strongly suspect is the case—it certainly | ~ should have the opportunity. Democrats on the ways and means committee, being opposed to the Ruml-Carlson plan, are afraid to give the ~ house another chance at it. Republican Leader Martin says ~ that unless ways and means stop obstructing it he will move to “discharge” the committee and bring pay-as-you-go legislation back before the house, with no restrictions on freedom of action. He expresses confidence that he has Rncugh support to break the log jam by this method, and we hope he will do it. al J The taxpayers need pay-as-you-go. The treasufy needs the increased revenue that the Ruml-Carlson plan, or some plan along similar lines, would start bringing in. The gov‘ernment’ needs to sell war bonds to many people who fear that ways and means and the treasury will put over some scheme to .collect income taxes for a year and a half or two years in Fore; and 80 are hesitating to tie up their money.

0 PER CENT PLUS THE government's: appeal this month, when it is seeking to raise at least 13 billion dollars through sale of war bonds, means that, extra buying is expected even of those who are already enlisted in payroll-deduction plans. . “Ten per cent is “no. longer enough,” says Secretary

forgenthau. * Putting more than 10, per cent of our wages, salaries

war bonds may seem to many of us a

g. But remember this: We aren't giving g ; ithe moiey we exchange for

WASHINGTON, April 14.—The 25th anniversary ‘of ‘the U. S. airmail is to be observed May 15-16, but unless the U. 8. com- ‘ ‘mercial - airlines can get a few

more transport planes assigned |

to them by the army, there is .a fair chance that the celebration, instead of being a . joyous birthday, will be. somewhat in tke nature of a wake, marking the complete bog-down by overloading ‘of the best airmail system in the world. Airmail today is slow. Airmail is late. Airmail ‘pouches get kicked off or kept off planes by high priority passengers. Postmaster General Frank C. Walker himself gave recognition to this ‘bad situation by his recent admission thai the airmail was in a bad way, might have to be dropped entirely as a war measure, to enable the commercial airlines to haul passengers ‘and priority ‘express, relieving them of the added burden of carrying mere mail The inside story, however, is that Postmaster ‘Walker's statement was something in the nature of a trial balloon, intended to call attention. to the serious situation now confronting the airmail service, indirectly to prod along and force action on the commercial airlines’ entirely reasonable requests that they be allocated a few more planes to do the tremendous job that has been dumped on their wings by the war effort. As few as six planes would help, two dozen more planes would relieve the crisis and if assigned to the airlines immediately, this 25th anniversary would mark the rebirth of the airmail service instead of its collapse.

| Airlines'Step Up Mileage

THE FACT 1S that U. §. commercial airlines have been doing a tremendous job under severe handicaps, with records of plane .and personnel performance which the army’s air transport command, for all its recent bragging, would have a Lard time matching if it would release its figures, which it won’t because it gonsiders such matters ‘military secrets. Every commercial plane in the United States today is averaging 1600 miles of flight per day, as against an average of only 1150 miles per plane per day before the war. Flying planes longer hours, greater mileage and with heavier loads has been the principal means by which the commercial airlines have attempted to make up for their lack of adequate equipment. As of Pearl Harbor, the commercial airlines Lad 365 planes. In April the army took over 25 per cent of them, in June got the airlines to convert about 70 planes from passenger to cargo use and in addition took over another 38 planes. That left the airlines with 166 planes, or less than half of what they had before, but with more passengers, more express and more mail to haul. The army took over control of priorities, to run the airlines from 16 regional offices. Twenty-five cities and 21 routes had their air service stopped.

Airmail Vital to War Effort CONGRESSMAN JENNINGS RANDOLPH of Elkins, W. Va. who fathered the airmail pickup service and is now running a one-man crusade for 20,000 airports in the United States, has. also been digging into this air transport crisis in the belief that a breakdown or a further curtailment of existing air. services would be most disastrous to the war effort. At Randolph’s request, Cc. P. Graddick, of Chicago, director of the air cargo department for United Airlines, has prepared a lengthy and detailed statement on the situation, emphasizing the fact that the business of the United States is now geared to airmail and air express operation—not business as usual airmail, but war business airmail, including blueprints, .government contracts, specifications, rush orders, waybills, business letters and papers, soldier, sailor and marine mail. “No one wants to impede the war effort, ? ‘writes Mr. Graddick, “but I do believe we have reached the point where we must weigh carefully the value to the war effort of maintaining . . . essential commercial service. “So greatly overburdened is this service today that if a few more planes are not allocated to the commercial phase of the service, the entire war effort will be hurt.” : ® ‘= = Golly Westbrook Pegler is on vacation.

Post-War Pacific

By William Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, April 14.--T¢ is an open secret that the Rt. Hon. Dr. Herbert Vore Evatt, Australian attorney general and minister for external affairs, has flown to this country to amplify ‘and speed up the flow of war equipment to the South Pacific. He said as much at his press conference here this week.’ : But what is probably not so well known, and what Dr. Evatt

did not. go into at his conference, is that Australians

are almost as anxious over the post-war status of the Pacific and Far East as they are over the present situation. For while they are absolutely confident of victory against the Japanese, they are far less certain concerning what will happen to them afterwards.

Ties With British Bending AUSTRALIA IS vitally concerned over future United States policy in the foreign field. So, we are told, are Great Britain and the Soviet Union. But whereas we are being given to understand that if the United States refuses to collaborate with Russia and Britain they will form a European bloc or balance of power without us, Australia lacks any such clear-cut alternative. One of the strange developments of the second world war is that Australia and New Zealand, twomembers of the British commonwealth of nations, ‘have of necessity become more dependent on the

United States than on Britain. It is not merely, or ||

even principally, a.matter of geography. It has to

do with manpower, national economy, developments in | air and seapower, Japanese imperialism, and more |:

besides.

Only the United States will be in a position to |] assume the burden of peace in the Pacific after the | |

war, and if for any reason it refuses to do so, the position of Australasia will be far from enviable.

‘Future’ Depends on U. S.

WRITING IN The Inter-Australian Asiatic Bulle-

tin on “Problems of War and Peace in the Pacific,”

W. D. Forsythe, former research secretary of inter- |

national affairs, said the future of the Pacific depends ‘chiefly on American policy. If the United States retires to isolationism, whether through its own volition or “through deferment. to the advice or wishes of other powers,” or from any ‘other cause, “then the peace of the Pacific

1

The Hoosier Forum

1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will . defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltiaire.

“WHY CAN'T THEY PASS LAWS THAT ARE FAIR?”

By Mrs. H. M. W., Indianapolis

The government is so darned afraid there will be so much extra money that it will cause inflation. Why. can't they pass laws that are fair, according to one’s ability to pay? Take this for example. Yesterday I bought front room curtains which cost $9.25. A. couple bought the same kind, only more pairs, which cost $37. They paid cash and took theirs home. I paid $2 down and had fo put mine in the layaway, and it will probably be two months before I can get them. I needed more pairs, too, but I couldn't afford them. Take 100 people who can buy like that. and you have $3700. Take 100 like myself and you have $925. Which would cause inflation? I'm not grouching because I'm not rich, but a poor person Las to pay higher living costs and buy bonds and stamps, and if they keep on taxing us what are we to do? It won't hurt the “biggies” to lower their standard of living without hurting their morale, but what do they think it will do to the less fortunate ones if they keep taking from us? : # » # “WRITE. ABOUT GOOD THINGS POLICEMEN DO” By An Irritated Citizen, Indianapolis. Please make an effort to print this letter as I am seething inside and out ahd must get a word at . « « Mrs. Brothers, who is so down on the police department. I am not a policeman’s wife, Mrs. Brothers, so perhaps you will count my opinion unbiased. My husband has been in the restaurant business for years and counts the majority of policemen who have come in his eating place as his friends. True, he has in all these years given them lots of food but he feels that it has been worthwhile to him. " There are still lots of people in this town who have respect for a policeman and who will not try to start trouble while one is around. I am very much pleased to know t during the right hours there are two different shifts of. policemen who stop in our restaurant, eat and chat a little with my husband. Personally, I was glad to see the two_policemen’s wives answer your lettr and would like to see more. Mrs. Brothers, do you ever listen to the police radio calls in this town or any other? Have you ever heard the announcer say: “Car — (number, go to —— (address), ADT alarm” and think what they might

mean? | on prowler runs, does a police-

Side Glances—By Galt Galbraith

. (Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Because of the volume received, letters must be limited to 250 words. Letters must be signed.)

man know what he is walking into when he goes around a house in the dark? I know a lady who came home at 11 p. m. the other night and thought she saw someone in her home as she approached the door. She went to a neighboring house where there were three men, but they wouldn't go near her house. They called the police and one policeman answered the run, walked in and searched the house. My lady friend did not get his badge number or she would report what a courteous, courageous officer he was. If you, Mrs. Brothers, and some of the other cranks would write about the good things that the policemen do instead of taking up some minor mistake one .0of them made, it would keep the morale of a group of men who hear dirty digs at themselves, through the newspapers, : And I heartily disagree with you about’ your percentage figures of the recent “cleanup” in our city. You can drive up and down the streets: all over town and see the number of pool rooms closed. Thank everything for that as it was one of the worst menaces to our young boys! But please don’t blame the individual policeman for what the present administration is doing! As for comparing school teachers’ and policemen’s pay, there can be no fair comparision to two such groups. The majority of teachers are women, a great many married, while policemen are fathers and heads of the family. And before anyone pops off too much, find out how many of the younger policemen have com e education to the teacher. I think that gripers about policemen can be classed in one of the three following: A traffic law violator, parents of a pampered child who have had run-ins with the law, or someone who had a relative try to make the police department and couldn’t fill the bill!

= » “TRUE LIBERTY DOESN'T MEAN LICENSE” By 0. M., Indianapolis “The invitation” for comment given by several Forum . writers these past weeks seems irresistible!

This is apropos letters which smack’

"Gosh, he Maley, 8 Bill hasn't got a dies) hope you won’ ¥ mind. if he | 5s in tags along with, us!"

of “We’ll do as we please” flavor in the name of liberty. Wouldn't it be just too grand if these persons could only - realize that, true liberty does not mean license, but rather brings an added sense of responsibility for consideration to others and for far less selfishness. Illustration of types herein referred to, who shout so loudly about liberty and freedom may be found among those annoying theater talkers who spoil the show for persons around -them, who, when asked to be quiet, tell you rudely, “if you don't like it, change your seat.” Those who smoke on stuffy cars and busses, those who operate ‘loud, blatting radios “regardless,” those who make inexcusable noise all through the night in the name of “we have our right to fun,” in total disregard for hardworking neighbors who require rest to cgrry on with the strenuous duties demanded in these days, those who— but, others may complete an altogether too long list of these “nervewracking” inconsiderations. Such types only make a mockery of these grand old words, liberty and freedom, words so terribly abused. Incidentally, one wonders if the above illustrations may not explain, at least in part, the reluctancy of some ‘landlords to rent property to tenants with children. Many landlords and neighbors have had far too many unhappy experiences through uncurbed children who have no conception of real freedom, and who respect no “boundary lines,” to say nothing of destructive tendencies in other phases. A little more earnest study of the dictionary on these words, “freedom and liberty” would possibly correct many misinformed, misguided and untrained souls! Plys “ga little more heart!” Let's hope!

%

» » “IS THERE ANY CONSISTENCY HERE?” By Gene Engle, 4168 Otterbein Will someone attempt to explain to me just what “labor's friend” is trying to accomplish? “Wages, Prices Curbed,” “Roosevelt Acts to Check Threats to Stabilized Economy.” “To hold the line against inflation we cannot tolerate further increases in prices affecting the cost of living or further increases in general wage or salary rates except. , . . We cannot stop inflation solely by wage and price ceilings. . We must be prepared to tax ourselves more, to spend less and save more.” Is there any consistency here? Does anyone else have an inkling of what's coming next? . . . x x =»

“LET'S GET ON WITH WAR

| WITH REAL WARRIORS”

By Edward F. Maddox, Indianapelis Gen. Douglas MacArthur's inspiring statement: “Let's get on with the war,” is the campaign cry which should land him in the White House in 1944 as our next president! We are up against our toughest war and we certainly need a president and commander-in-chief who knows how to win a war and whose

known purpose is to “get on with the war” rather than to use the war as a political weapon. Yes sir, I hereby nominate Gen. Douglas MacArthur as the Republican candidate for our next president. Do I hear any objections? And while I am in the nominating business I also wish to nominate Thomas E. Dewey as vice president, as a teammate for Gen. MacArthur, a team certain to win. So let's we the people draft them—now! And to complete the record I also nominate Gen. Robeért H. Tyndall for our next governor of Indiana. Let's get on’ with ‘the ‘war with real warriors!

DAILY THOUGHT

Talk so Wor, to exceeding “proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by “him actions . are weighed. Samuel 2:3,

FOR. WHAT r¢ they ll in thn

| the bibgrapher Henry Pringle, are neither long-haired

By Lee G. Miller WASHINGTON, April “14.—~Whether should be given the truth sfpaight or in capsules is the real issue behind the rebellion the office of war information, according to some the rebels. The OWI row has been pictured as a squabble over techniques—over the issuance of pamphlets vs. the use ¥ of “normal” channels of information. The actuality cuts deeper. The real argument, certain of the writers whe are resigning from OWI say, is— Facts vs. ballyhoo. RE nly 100 pris who Are uiEHER DWE, in the wake of the forced resignation of their chief,

radicals nor long-paunched bureaucrats. ot.

at the government's service. Sie qovernmute waviee_____ i Yoaiares: tion—which had been long stirring—was a proposed OWI report on the food situation. This report has not been printed, and presumably will not be—unless a congressional committee orders it produced. =

Wanted 'More Palatable’ Report

THE FOOD REPORT was written by MacNeil Lowry of Mr. Pringle’s writers division. He turned it in Jan. 3. Mr, Pringle edited it. . Under OWI practice, the report was submitted to interested government agencies. Secretary of Agriculture Wickard countermanded certain gloomy statistics on the prospective food supply—figures based on the food supply that would be available if the department’s crop goals were realized—by no means a certainty. The office of economic stabilisation, also, thought that the report, with its sobering forecasts, was inopportune because of the impending lend-lease debate in congress. These influences were from outside OWI, of course. But at the same. time, according to some of the Pringle staff, it was apparent that leading lieutenants of War Information Director Elmer Dayis were actively sympathetic with the desire to sott-pedal the™ ‘unpleasant prospects for the American dinner table. They favored, it is charged, a “more palatable” report. The upshot was no report at all, All this was before rationing. The subsequent shocks—the buying panics and shortages—might have been cushioned, some of /the resigning OWI people think, if the original food report had been issued to the press in January as planned. h

Goes Back Before Pearl Harbor

' BUT THE OWI row goes far back, to before Pearl Harbor, when OWI wasn’t OWI but OFF--the office of facts and figures—and run not by Elmer Davis but; by the poet-librarian, Archibald MacLeish, One of Mr. MacLeish's right-hand men (and now: one of Mr. Davis’) was William Lewis, a former $12,-000-a-year vice president of the Columbia Broadcasting system. Mr. Lewis, in fact, along with Robert Kintner— then a newspaper columnist, now an army lieutenant colonel--had conceived the idea that the government should establish an agency to counteract Nazi propaganda and stimulate thinking about post-war problems. Out of the Kintner-Lewis conversations—in which Mayor La Guardia took part for a time—grew the OFF. Mr. Lewis is young, ambitious, high-powered and possessed of what an OWI young woman demurely calls “personal appeal.” He made friends easily, but hasn’t kept them all Some of the resigning OWI men blame him for their difficulties. They regard him as more interested in ballvhoo—in “campaigns”’—than in the careful presentation of facts to press and public which they have regarded as their function. x

Friction Arose From Principles IN OFF, Bill Lewis was originally in charge of the writers division, but Mr. Kintner succeeded in getting him shifted. Presently Mr. Lewis became radio coordinator. But in this and subsequent capacities Mr. Lewis has been impatient with Mr. Pringle. And Mr. Lewis’ immediate boss as of todlay—the head of OWI’s..: domestic operations, Gardner Cowles Jr. of the Des Moines publishing family-—seems to have absorbed some of the impatience. Eimer Davis, having “drafted” Mr. Cowles, backed him up when a showdown on policy came with Mr. Pringle. In an attempt to keep peace, Harold Guingburg, president of the Viking Press, was brought in to serve: as Mr. Pringle’s immediate boss, on the theory that he might act as a buffer between clashing personalities. It turned out that the friction derived not so much from personalities as from principles—from Mr. Pringle’s irritating insistence that the whole truth, up to the limits imposed by considerations of national secur-’ ity, be served up without soft soap—as in his division's illuminating reports on aircraft, on army drinking, ete.

And There Was No Sale! ABOUT 10 DAYS ago there was a dramatic meet-

is] ing in which practically the whole staff of Mr. Prin-

gle’s writers division faced up to Elmer Davis and “Mike” Cowles and stated their case—the case of facts vs. ballyhoo. They didn't make a sale, In the absence of intervention by Mr. Davis, Mr, Cowles asked for Mr. Pringle’s resignation. The wholesale resignations of executives, writers and researchers followed, and continue. As for the OWI explanation that the controversy really concerned only a decision to “save paper” by stopping the issuance of pamphlets, outgoing writers describe this as disingenuous. I" In fact an OWI executive, can several off the resigned writers with Tia to stay on in: OWTI’'s news division (the writers division beng now abolished), assured them the publication of pamphlets would continue, But they turned him down,

We the Women

By Ruth Millett

so YOUTHFUL” ~heriythey Me WYIDG 1 Jake 8

dering or not Ts ts Tt AES £ Do you think. the popular songs afe terrible?

‘I Was Just a Child’ nant aed

De DO YOU MAKE it quife clear that is 4 yor or two olde hans You ue I ik of age group? oT us 1 tree en ee im young you look?